It is possible to win big without rolling the dice. Pep Guardiola’s unprecedented quadruple brought him English football’s largest jackpot but it is not one he is willing to risk by gambling in a bid for European glory.
Manchester City’s Premier League winners face Liverpool’s Champions League holders on Sunday. While Guardiola’s adventurous approach brought 169 goals last season, he is adamant he would not wager a campaign’s work on the outside bet of emulating Jürgen Klopp by conquering Europe.
“The Champions League is an important tournament, difficult to win,” he said. “But I don’t want to go to the casino and gamble everything I have in my pocket for seven games. I don’t want it.”
A manager who was first defined by winning European Cups now insists he places a greater priority on domestic glory. It is why, he claims, he would sacrifice a first Champions League since 2011 to secure a hat‑trick of Premier League titles.
“I would sign right now to do what we did last season again,” he insisted. “Not winning the Champions League and [getting] four titles again.” He argued it offers greater job satisfaction. “I want to be happy during 11 months. It makes me happy, the Premier League. When I win, the days after I am happier. I go to the restaurants better, I feel better, I work better with my players. That’s what it gives me.
“Am I going to wait until February to play seven games with everything on the colour black? From my point of view, it’s too risky. You have to handle it. To maintain the health of the team, the focus in the Premier League. The Premier League always is the most important thing, the local competition because it is every weekend.”
If defeats come at a smaller cost in the Premier League – and even in two seasons when City accumulated 198 points, they lost six times – luck plays a lesser part. City exited the Champions League to Tottenham on away goals; what proved a decider off Fernando Llorente’s arm and thigh and after what appeared a Raheem Sterling winner was overturned via VAR.
“One inch offside, no inches offside, decisions, referees, arriving with a lot of injuries, the team is better than you,” Guardiola said. “For one or two games many things can happen. Winning the Champions League is so difficult, so, so complicated.”
If fortune favoured Klopp’s braves, and Guardiola has consistently complimented a team he admires, it grates a little that City’s unprecedented clean sweep of the English trophies was compared unfavourably with Liverpool’s continental feats.
“Winning the Champions League gets all the credit,” he noted. “But why is it higher than what we have done over 11 months? I’m pretty sure Liverpool would have liked to win the last Premier League [after] 30 years not winning. It is incredibly good what they have done in the Champions League but winning the Premier League is really good. They were just one point behind, but we were better.”
Yet City’s inability to conquer the continent has come at a cost. It is a reason, Guardiola feels, why his players have been overlooked come awards season. Kevin De Bruyne was City’s leading representative in the 2018 Ballon d’Or rankings, his 29 points dwarfed by winner – and Champions League winner – Luka Modric’s tally of 753.
“I’m not going to say the 10 guys nominated for this award don’t deserve it,” he said. “But I was a little bit surprised because our players won four Premier League titles and they were not able to be there, even once.
“Maybe because, for this award, it is seven games: eighth-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. When you win the Champions League, you will be there.
“In the other 10 or 11 months they don’t care for these kind of awards. It is a little bit unfair but it is what it is. Maybe you have to win five titles or maybe Bernardo six. I don’t think one player made a better season than Bernardo Silva last season, even winning [the Nations League] with Portugal. Maybe we have to win five or six or get 250 points to be considered next season.”
While Sterling was named Footballer of the Year, no City player has won the PFA Award, to Guardiola’s bemusement. “In eight years we won four Premier Leagues, and never won: not Sergio [Agüero], not David [Silva], not Vincent [Kompany], not the players in the past. So the season we won 100 points, huge respect for Mohamed Salah but Kevin De Bruyne was above and beyond the normal situations. But it is opinions.”
Those opinions have favoured Liverpool’s Luis Suárez, Salah and Virgil van Dijk when City won the league in 2014, 2018 and 2019 during their own title drought.
Rivals have been opposites, but Guardiola is adamant the Premier League is the prize that proves the most.